How ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Trailer Would Have Looked in 1983

When he was still in charge of Lucasfilm, George Lucas liked to say thatStar Wars was like poetry; it rhymed, in a cycle of repetition. There was Return of the Jedi, and then many years later (or some years before, depending on how you look at things) there was Revenge of the Sith. The latest Star Wars movie coming to theaters is called The Last Jedi, which feels like another echo as the cycle repeats itself all over again.

The connection between those titles got us wondering what The Last Jedi teaser, released last month at Star Wars Celebration, would look like if the cycle had worked out a little differently, and it had come out in 1983 instead of Return of the Jedi. That brought us to the video above, where we remixed and reimagined last month’s Last Jedi trailer with the retro style of that old Return of the Jedi coming attraction. The two line up pretty well, actually.

For sake of comparison, here’s the official Last Jedi teaser:

Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in theaters on December 15. We can’t guarantee it, but we have to assume the final film will be slightly less grainy (and slightly more widescreen) than our retro trailer. In the meantime, check out some of ScreenCrush’s other retro trailers for current blockbusters: